Syracuse area school districts say they are vigilant about safety

A security camera can be seen mounted above the main entrance of Jamesville-DeWitt High School in this photo from Sept. 26, 2002.Stephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-Standard, 2002

Editor's note: Alaina Potrikus co-wrote this story.

It seems there is always another horrific reminder that security is as much a part of a school’s mission as education is.

Friday it was the slaughter of students and staff at a Connecticut elementary school. School officials around the region and country were issuing statements or granting interviews about what measures their schools take to safeguard students and staff.

Syracuse Superintendent Sharon Contreras put out a statement that said student safety and security is the district’s top priority.

“Me, as a super, I have to take the safety and security of the kids extremely seriously. And it’s so easy to say it can’t happen here,” Liverpool Superintendent Richard N. Johns said. You can’t completely guarantee it won’t, he said. “But you certainly can take some measures. You can decrease the probability of it happening,” Johns said.

Liverpool is converting all its school buildings so that the only way to enter is through a vestibule that leads only to a locked door to the principal’s office.

All the schools’ doors already are kept locked. Visitors must be buzzed in and have to produce a driver’s license or certain identification. The identification is checked through a computerized link to a New York State Police database, where any criminal record will pop up, Johns said.

The district takes many other security measures at all its buildings, too.

Syracuse schools have a single point of entry, and visitors must be buzzed in. The district has its own security force and hires Syracuse police officers to work in its schools. It works closely with city and state police and has an emergency communication system and lockdown procedures in place, Contreras said.

In Canastota, the school district recently worked with the police chief to assess how ready the staff was for an emergency. They sent someone into the building without a pass and monitored how the staff handled it.

Bragan said teachers approached the individual, asked how they could help and directed him back to the main office to register. “You hate to have to do that, but we have tried to practice for those things,” Bragan said. “The teachers and the monitors take it very seriously.”

All of the district’s buildings are locked during the day. Employees enter using a swipe cards. Staff members buzz in visitors they can see on a security camera.

All of the elementary buildings in the Fayetteville-Manlius district are on lock-down every day, too, Superintendent Corliss Kaiser said. Visitors must buzz to get let in and then they sign in at the main office. The district has emergency lockdown and evacuation procedures which are practiced and reviewed. All district buildings are also equipped with security cameras.

“We are doing everything humanly possible to either deter or prevent a tragedy like this,” Kaiser said.

Her district received a number of calls from parents today in the wake of the shooting. “The kids are scared,” Kaiser said. “It is horrifying, it really is.”

In a letter to parents, Baldwinsville Superintendent Jeanne Dangle said she has asked the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office and the Baldwinsville police chief to make their daily patrol cars more visible around the schools over the next week. She’s asked the school resource officers and head custodians to be out and about around the buildings.

Some superintendents are asking parents to talk to their children about what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Contreras said the city district will make staff available if students need counseling Monday.

"Parents, talk to or listen to your kids tonight about the tragedy that unfolded today. Hug them as well,” tweeted West Genesee Superintendent Christopher R. Brown.